620 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



ing, amongst others, the article in the convention defining 

 the exclusive fishery limits, were repealed by the Sea Fish- 

 eries Act, 1883. 1 



Both conventions, as we have seen, dealt with oyster fisheries 

 in a special manner, and on the coast of France a large area, 

 extending much beyond the three-mile limit, was reserved to 

 French fishermen on account of the valuable oyster-grounds 

 it contained. An interesting point was raised by the Irish 

 authorities. It happened that Ireland also possessed productive 

 and extensive oyster-beds on the coast of Wexford, stretching 

 for many miles beyond the exclusive fishery limits laid down 

 in the convention, and the Irish authorities claimed the right 

 of control over the whole of them. They had enforced regula- 

 tions there before the first convention with France, in 1839, 

 had been entered into, and at that time they protested against 

 its application to Ireland. Accordingly, in the Act of 1843 

 giving effect to the convention, a clause was inserted empower- 

 ing the Board of Trade, with the sanction of the Privy Council, 

 to suspend the operation of the convention in Ireland or any 

 part thereof, so long as the fisheries there should be carried on 

 exclusively by British subjects, and also to make bye-laws for 

 enforcing the Act as soon as French boats frequented Irish 

 waters for the purpose of fishing. 2 On the day following the 

 passing of the Act an Order in Council was issued directing 

 " that the said Act and articles of regulation shall be suspended 

 with respect to the fisheries of the whole coasts of Ireland, so 

 long as such fisheries shall be carried on exclusively by the 

 subjects of Her Majesty." 



The matter was again raised in connection with the con- 

 vention of 1867, and it was associated with a recent act of 

 jurisdiction by the Irish authorities beyond the three-mile 

 limit. Some Welsh boats which had been dredging for oysters 

 on the coast of Wexford, at a distance, it was said, of four or 

 five miles from the shore, were arrested, taken to Wexford, the 

 fishermen fined, and the oysters forfeited. The Board of Trade 

 thereupon asked the Irish Department, with reference to an 

 Act that had been passed in 1842 to regulate the Irish 

 fisheries, 3 to state what were " the limits of the Act to regulate 



1 46 & 47 Viet., c. 22, sec. 30. 



2 6 & 7 Viet., c. 79, s. vi. 3 5 & 6 Viet., c. 106. 



